Junior firefighters will now have an earlier opportunity to access the training they need to become full firefighters across Pennsylvania, state Sen. Carolyn Comitta said. Act 155 of 2022 allows junior firefighters, age 17, to train on live-burn, interior firefighter modules. Currently, only those 18 and older are allowed to enroll in this training program.
- PUB DATE: 12/5/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Mercury

Medics rushed a person to a hospital with serious injuries following a house fire in Kennewick early Friday morning. Fire crews responded to the home in the 200 block of South Quincy street at around 1 A.M. It was also reported that two people could be inside the burning home. Police were the first on scene, and when they arrived they found a 'semi-conscious' man outside of the home who was taken to a local hospital in critical condition and was later flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
- PUB DATE: 12/5/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KIMA-TV CBS/CW+ 29 Yakima

Crews with the Spokane Fire Department made quick work of a greenhouse fire at Sweet Mercy Farms Sunday afternoon. Crews responded to the fire shortly before 1 p.m. and had it under control in less than 30 minutes. According to SFD, there were no injuries in the fire, and the department is still working to determine the cause.
- PUB DATE: 12/5/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHQ-TV NBC 6 Spokane

A woman estimated to be around 40 years old was taken from the scene and kept under observation for smoke inhalation as responders fought back a house fire in the 1000 block of West Main Street behind the Possibilities Pregnancy Center in Centralia Sunday morning. At about 11:20 a.m., the Riverside Fire Authority responded to a call about the home, which was nearly fully engulfed by their arrival.
- PUB DATE: 12/5/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Chronicle

By Alan M. Petrillo

WEB EXCLUSIVE

Somerdale (NJ) Fire Department found it needed to replace a 14-year-old rescue-pumper with a rig that was a multi-use piece of apparatus because of the growing community that the department serves. It’s previous rescue-pumper was a Ferrara Fire Apparatus vehicle, so the department felt very comfortable going back to Ferrara to have it build its new multi-functional rescue-pumper.

Brian Barkoff, Somerdale’s chief, says Somerdale is a 1.5-square mile town that’s a suburb of Philadelphia with a population of 6,000. “We’re primarily a bedroom community with a commercial area that has a shopping mall, theaters and retail businesses, along with a small industrial park,” Barkoff says. “We have 40 volunteer firefighters responding out of one station with a Ferrara engine and quint, our new rescue-pumper, and an air/light truck. We’re on automatic mutual aid for every structure fire in a six-square mile area with a 21,500 population.”

Steve Shatzel, project manager for Firefighter One Apparatus, which sold the vehicle to Somerdale, says the rescue-pumper is built on a Cinder chassis and cab with seating for six firefighters, five of them in SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) seats. He notes that the rig is powered by a 450-horsepower (hp) Cummins L9 diesel engine and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission, and has a Hale Qmax 2,000-gallon per minute (gpm) pump, and a 500-gallon polypropylene water tank. Wheelbase on the rescue-pumper is 205 inches, overall length is 33 feet 11-3/4-inches, and overall height is 9 feet 5-1/4-inches.

Barkoff notes that the department wanted to increase the usability of its new rescue-pumper, so it added more preconnected hosed Holmatro hydraulic rescue tools to the rig. “In the R1 compartment, we have three slide-out trays, one with four Holmatro rams and a mini-cutter, a second one with two hydraulic cutters and one spreader, and on the third slide-out tray, a gasoline-drive hydraulic pump,” he says. “Two hydraulic hose reels are located in the coffin compartment above the R1 compartment and feed their hydraulic hoses down into the top of the compartment.̶